A bid to overturn NSW public health orders requiring some workers be vaccinated will be expedited through the state’s highest court, as virus infections in the state continue to skyrocket.
The suit against Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant was heard in the NSW Supreme Court for the first time on Friday, when the state reported a record 1431 new COVID-19 cases and another 12 deaths.
The state of NSW and the Commonwealth are also named as defendants.
Sydney law firm Ashley, Francina, Leonard and Associates will argue the public health orders requiring a broad class of workers be vaccinated are illegal and unconstitutional, as are the extra powers granted to police to enforce public health orders.
The suit will seek a declaration that the NSW public health orders are invalid and a ban on any further orders made by Mr Hazzard and Dr Chant.
More than 19,000 people turned into the live-streamed hearing on Friday, as the court heard more than 300 pages of written statements have been tendered with the statement of claim.
The material sought to raise a great number of questions about the validity or unreasonableness of the NSW legislation, and at least three questions relating to the constitution, Justice John Sackar said.
The matter should be expedited so it can be resolved as soon as possible, all parties agreed.
But to do that, the plaintiff should consider dropping Mr Hazzard and Dr Chant from the suit, their lawyer Megan Caristo said.
“I now have instructions to seek to have them removed as parties in the matter … the state of New South Wales is a party that is the more appropriate for it,” she said.
It was a “sensible” point, Justice Sackar said, asking lawyers acting for the plaintiff to consider it before a hearing at 9am on Wednesday.
When filing the suit this week, an Ashley, Francina, Leonard and Associates spokesperson said the firm had received thousands of inquiries from front-line workers, university students, parents and employers.
“It is our view that vaccine compulsion strips citizens of their basic human rights, including their right to work, their right to bodily integrity and their right to informed consent to medical treatment without coercion,” they said in a statement.
AAP
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